Android is in a top-of-the-line camera now

A few days ago, Samsung introduced the Galaxy NX30. It runs Android. Real Google-logo and has Google Play Store Android, not just an AOSP-based embedded Android used for the UI stack. And that means apps.Unlocking the potential of high-end cameras to support new kinds of apps and new features in apps means getting access to RAW image data - the data directly from the sensor, before it is processed into a jpg compressed image.

Here comes a new kind of camera app

Unlike smartphone sensors, where a RAW image might be unusable before it goes through a lot of processing built in to the camera,, high-end camera sensors can be thought as film with an adjustable ISO number. You can expect the sensor, and the lens, on a high-end digital camera to have the same fidelity as a sheet of film and a lens on a chemical process camera. That unlocks serious photography and opens a market for apps for that kind of photography.

But there's a hitch

The hitch is that there is appears to be no access to RAW image data. The raw parameter in the onPictureTaken method is much older (API 5) than I expected to find. however, it is also one of those things that no Android port that I know of implements. It became ignored by convention.That's too bad because in the case of the NX30, it would enable a lot of camera software features and functionality. Enough to keep camera app developers busy for at least one more product generation. It is possible I'm mistaken about this, but I don't have an NX30 to test on. Samsung, are you listening?

Android has lots of camera features now , but not for serious photography

The new-ish (API 14) camera API features are cool and easy to use in an app but mostly point & shoot oriented. They enable programs to command what's in focus and other useful features. Current generation camera apps that have effects are implemented going from one jpg image to another jpg. That's OK for smartphone cameras and lo-fi results, e.g. sepia toned lunch Instagrams, but very far short of what would be appropriate for a 20MP sensor on a top of the line mirrorless camera.

But you can get RAW on the memory card

Yes, you can get at RAW images on the memory card when you put the card in your PC, and that's essential for editing those images in digital darkroom applications. But that digital darkroom can move into the camera itself, and spread itself around various parts of camera software: Viewfinder image processing, post-processing, and in alternative implementations of various camera features.

RAW is just a start

There is a lot of potential in opening camera hardware to apps, more-complete implementations of existing APIs, technologies like RenderScript in the DSP-based camera processing chain, and new app-level APIs:

RAW image access is key to creating a new class of camera apps and processing software

Cameras have powerful DSPs. Apple recently bought a company that optimzed image compression for high-frame-rate photography. There ought to be a whole category of DSP software for your camera that customizes high performance image processing

New APIs could enable real-time access to the sensor to create novel viewfinder features, among other possibilities

Let's see Google, Samsung, Sony, and others who are bringing Android into professional and prosumer-grade photography use the potential of Android to open new possibilities for apps and new forms of photographic expression.

Get link

Facebook

Twitter

Pinterest

Email

Other Apps

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

UPDATE
A continually updated version of the information in this post, plus a lot of new information, is now available at: 5Ggui.de
Telecom companies, their suppliers, and politicians are putting 5G in the news
There have been a lot of news stories about 5G, a new mobile wireless standard. The theme many of these suspiciously similar articles is that 5G is going to transform everything. I'll tell you what to expect in reality, and what is wishful thinking on the part of the telecom industry, and why telecom service providers and equipment makers are hyping fantasies.
5G is a better radio
5G means better mobile devices and a better mobile network. There are three main reasons 5G is better:5G introduces a new radio technology that makes more efficient use of radio spectrumThe network behind those radios will be faster and have lower latency5G enables using more of the radio spectrum
There are many factors in the increased sophistication in 5G radios. These are the most important:Encod…

At Google I/O 2016, Google announced two new messaging products: Allo, for text messaging, and Duo, for video communications. These are the most recent in a series of messaging products Google has created, none of which have succeeded in attracting a really large user community the way that other messaging products have done. Google doesn't release figures for monthly active users of Hangouts, while WhatsApp has a billion users, Facebook Messenger and QQ have 850 million, and WeChat has about 700 million. The stakes in messaging are very high, and, so far, Google is an also-ran.

In 2015, it looked like Google might go in a different direction, perhaps acting as a spoiler for proprietary messaging apps that don't interoperate and don't use carrier protocols like SMS and MMS. Google bought a company called Jibe that makes next-generation messaging servers for standard telecom protocols called Rich Communications Services, or RCS. If Google based a messaging system on RCS it w…

Photo by Matthew Hester (CC BY-ND 2.0)
Google has become something of a slumlord. While Google+ has been accused of being a "ghost town," at least it looks pretty, even now after what feels like a long period of stagnation and un-addressed bugs. But Google+ isn't the most neglected neighborhood in Googleland.

Where is the Blogger blog?
Various parts of Google, notably Search, use Blogger to convey news about new releases and their development road map. Blogger is key infrastructure for Google itself. But where is the Blogger blog? Like some other semi-abandoned properties, Blogger no longer has frequent updates about features.

If you want a history of Blogger and it's features, you'll have to rely on Wikipedia. Evidently there are ardent Blogger users who keep track of these things.

Why does this matter? There are a lot of abandoned places on the Internet. Blogger, however, is emblematic of the problems that precipitated the departure of Vic Gundotra from Google+…